Day 45 - Would you like some cheese with your wine?

I began work today by grabbing TEM grids and heading to the TEM to work with Talmon. We examined samples of carbon nanotubes functionalized with COOH and NH2 groups, and while the former were very damaged, the latter yielded many great images. And so, as predicted, I now have more images to process.

Anyways, that took most of the beginning of the day. I left around 1 pm, which was too late to join everyone for lunch, so I ate some leftovers and hummus and pita back in Clore. The rest of thw workday was rather unexciting, but I left around 5:30, at which point I went directly to Hertzl Bar where Zvonimir and Dan were having an early-ish dinner. We then changed and dropped stuff off in Clore, and left for the mall to catch a bus to Jerusalem. We were running sort of late and so decided to take a cab. This was a much more pleasant (read: air-conditioned) method, but wasn't that much faster than walking, as it turned out. When we got close to the mall, we got out sort of in the middle of the traffic circle and literally ran to the mall entrance. Through the security check we began running again, weaving in and out of old ladies and strollers, groups of people chatting in the most inconvenient locations, and dashing down the stairs.

While I've found that most buses here run remarkably close to perfectly on time, this bus was of course ten minutes late. Meaning we shouldn't have even worried. But better safe than sorry, I suppose. We got on and sat together in the back row of the bus, and I called Jonathan somewhere along the way to find out exactly how to navigate to our final destination once we arrived. He told us a bus number but said they'd just taken a cab, so we did the same when we arrived, pulling up to a rather long line to enter the Israel Museum. The event: the Annual Jerusalem Wine Festival.

We paid admission, then walked to the outdoor area, each receiving a wine glass as we passed into the open plaza. There was an outer ring of stands and an inner one surrounding a large sculpture, serving all sort of different tastes of wines. A few stands had crackers, one had wine-inspired jams and jellies, and one, which I found particularly enticing, was serving cheese. We wandered, trying various things, and without seeking them ran into Jonathan, his friend Etan, Jordan, his friend Dan, and Joel. They had been there for about an hour already. We walked with them for a bit but eventually broke up into the original groups.

The wines were diverse. One stand, which was probably rather cheap wine, poured rather large tastes with the claim that the stuff was "the best of the best of the west," whatever that means. Another had red dessert wine, which I had never tasted before and probably never will again. Many of the wines were mixtures, and many of them weren't bad. And of course some stands were much more serious than others. An interesting aspect of this particular location for a wine tasting was that many of the wineries weren't kosher, so occasionally you'd see someone in a kippah approaching and have the server say loudly, before they even reached the front of the line, that they should probably try elsewhere.

After a bit I parted with Zvonimir and Dan to grab a snack of sushi, which wasn't bad, before we finished our rounds. One of the wineries near the live music (!) had its own sort of stage, and a very cute server, so after one taste I went to get some cheese while Zvonimir debated how to go about proposing to her, with advice from Dan of course. After a while it became apparent he wouldn't have the guts, so we decided to call it a night. We luckily caught a cab outside the museum (luckily because there weren't many and it was getting close to the departure time of the last bus). We made it to the bus station 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of the last bus, but it pulled up about 7 minutes before this (which is more typical, in my experience). We got on, and got off outside the main gate of Weizmann. Dan and Zvonimir gave me their glasses and headed off to continue the party at Hertzl Bar. I was exhausted, so went back to Clore. After an entertaining chat with Ari and Rachel in the lobby, I headed off to bed.

I took pictures at the wine festival!

Me with an odd sculpture just inside the Israel Museum

Some of us once we all found each other.

Left to right: Etan, Jonathan, Me, Joel and Zvonimir

The band and a sculpture

Zvonimir and Dan...

A view of the whole festival

Zvonimir being a model

In the cab:

Day 44 - Flitting off to Jerusalem for the evening

Today began, as the last few also have but which somehow I've been neglecting to mention, with coffee/etc at Cafe Madaa with Zvonimir. Today we had the pleasure of being joined by Alissa and Barbara, which was entertaining. Alissa totally showed me up with her knowledge of Croatian history and culture. Darnit, I will really have to study Wikipedia more.

At work...make sure you're sitting down, because this is earth-shattering...I made more plots. w00t. No but seriously, I am exploring my data and it's going fine. Lunch was again at San Martin, with everyone, and was fine except that the pita guy really doesn't like me, for some reason. I'm not making this up: Jordan was there and can act as a witness. Anyways I hung out and ate, and a bunch of us discussed some theoretical weekend plans in more depth. I hope it all works out!

I continued work in the afternoon, taking a break at 3 pm to go to the Wolfson Building for a talk by Professor Ron Naaman about molecular sensors and such. It was very interesting, and I got to ask a bunch of questions about carbon nanotubes which I think (or at least hope) made up for the previous occasion upon which I met this professor (when I was asking sort of stupid questions about a pasta dish in line at Stone Cafeteria). More plotting afterwards, then I left to change and eat a quick snack at Clore, during which I was accompanied by Zvonimir.

At around 5:45 I left for the mall, where I caught a 6:20 bus to Jerusalem. An hour later I was walking along Yaffo Street, and 20 minutes after that I had found Debbie Yunker sitting waiting for me! Debbie is in Israel for a month studying Talmud at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and we decided it would be a shame not to have dinner together. So we went to a cute place, which happened to be the same restaurant/book shop/coffee shop place Jodi's friend had recommended when Jodi, Nina, Dave and I were in Jerusalem a few weeks ago.

Debbie and I both ordered shakshouka, which was a fabulous decision. Shakshouka is an Israeli "breakfast" dish consisting of an egg, tomatoes and possibly other vegetables (Debbie's had eggplant) and tomato sauce, and is served with bread. This was my first official shakshouka since getting here; I've tried other people's but never ordered it, so it was a momentus occasion. We chatted about each of our stays here, and a bit about Birthright and Penn, before leaving and walking up Ben Yehudah Street in the cool evening air. Jerusalem is amazing; it actually gets pleasantly cool and breezy in the evenings. This is confusing to me, having spent most of my evenings in humid Rehovot, but was very refreshing.

Once we got to the end of the street, and after I had bought a gift or two, we parted ways. I walked back to the Central Bus station and caught a bus which goes through Rehovot, so dropped me off at the front gate of Weizmann instead of at the mall. As I approached Clore, I saw everyone sitting, playing the guitar and chatting in the music room, so I joined them. A highlight of this portion of the night, for those keeping count, is that Jonathan will be getting a tag for the first time in a few days, due to his waiting for me to finally get the guitar, listening to me play one verse of Lenny Kravitz' "Fly Away," and then taking it away to play a better, bar-chord version for about 30 seconds before moving on to the next, much more impressive (I'm sure) song. Boo. Other highlights included many loud and beautiful renditions of Fugees songs by Alissa, Daniela, and occasionally Tanmay, and a dazzling (accapella/body) castanet display by Oren, which he repeated when I played an aria from Carmen on YouTube.

The gathering endured until people began to feel very sleepy (and Stephen actually dozed off on a bench). Eventually the crowd dispersed, but before that a good time was had by all.

Day 33 - Sunrise, Sunset

I left off the last entry with my 6 pm nap on Wednesday evening. When I woke up a few hours later, I joined a group (Dan, Ari, and Zvonimir) heading to Cafe Mada, the restaurant/cafeteria nearest to our dorm. We all had the same thing to eat: sweet potato ravioli in rose sauce. It was delicious! We were later joined by Jonathan, Rachel, Jordan, and Joel, by which time we had moved on to dessert. I got a delicious chocolate soufle thing which was amazing, and after a bit we all left together.

By the time we got back to Clore, it was almost time to go out! We changed and headed to the Hebrew University Rehovot campus (for agricultural studies), to the bar there called the Kukula, because they have a beer special on Wednesdays. We just sat around on couches and talked for an hour or two, then moved outside to the courtyard when it got too warm inside. An interesting discussion topic, namely, standards and criteria for "hotness" or interest in people of the opposite gender, was a recurring theme for the night.

We got back to Clore around 1 am, at which time we all packed for the next day's trip. We left as a kind of mob of people, heading for the parking lot of San Martin where the bus was waiting for us. The departure time was 2 am. This trip, another one organized by Greta for the KKISS program members, promised to be a long but exciting day.

We began with a drive, during which I think most people (me included, hence the "think") slept, to the foot of Masada. I also met Daniela, a recently-arrived KKISS student from Austria, on the bus. We arrived around 4 am, in the dark, and began the trek up the easy trail as the horizon began to take on a tinge of pink. By the time we reached the top, it was light enough to see very well, but the sun hadn't truly risen above the mountain tops in the distance, so we stood, looking east, munching sandwiches, as the fiery red ball emerged. Scattered along the edge, various people could be seen praying, and grackles hopped about looking for crumbs. The air was still cool and quiet as the day broke.

Sarah, our guide, then began the formal tour. We explored the storage buildings, baths, Herod's palace, the dovecotes, and the meeting rooms or synagogues as we criscrossed the surface of the plateau. Other tour groups engaged in similar activities or performed reenactments of the two sieges which took place at this site (Herod and his army or the Jewish rebels), and could be seen as we went on our way. Finally we started our descent, down the more difficult route, called the "Snake Path." You can use your imagination to conjure up possible origins of that name, but for my description, suffice it to say it is much longer and steeper than the way we took up.

At the bottom, we entered the visitor's center and sat basking in the glory of the air conditioning for a bit before walking through the Masada Museum, after which we boarded the bus once more and headed to the closeby Ein Gedi nature reserve. We restocked on water before beginning the hike, which took us through tall cliffs dotted with small caves, along a stream which periodically cascaded down the pale rocks, forming blue-green pools ringed with algae. While the first portion of the path was rather unexciting, there were many hyrax spottings: the adults as well as young were hopping about, in the shade on the ground or in the branches of the trees, and we literally saw dozens before the path dipped down and took us to the first pool. A few of us swam, but many waited for the next pool, only a few minutes down the path, which was larger and colder than the first, with a slightly more impressive waterfall. The third pool was even deeper and had a small, flat portion of rock by the falls which allowed Ari and I to compete with some acrobatic dives. I started with a cannonball, as requested, but when he did a backwards twist-flip, even my consequent backdive couldn't bring me back to win the contest. This pool was also home to a small worm which bit Tanmay's arm and some tadpoles which Jonathan caught to show us before releasing. I was able to photograph the latter, as well as some dragonflies.

After dipping in the third pool we gathered our belongings and headed back. At the bus we waited a few minutes for everyone to return, then drove across the street to the Dead Sea, in which we...floated. For anyone who hasn't ever done this, it is a necessary life task, but I don't think anyone can describe to you just how odd it is. The rocks by the shore, where water has evaporated, are coated in sharp salt crystals which glittered in the sunlight. The water is oily, and very warm, and the salts (plural, yes; not just NaCl) make up such a high percentage of the water that you are able to discover any unknown cuts or broken skin you might not have known you had. Also, after a bit it hurts. So we got in, sat for a few minutes (some longer than others), and then showered before grabbing our first real meal of the day. We took our time eating, then got back on the bus for the drive to Jerusalem. As this leg of the journey was a bit longer, many of us (read: I) took a brief nap and woke just as we pulled up to a scenic overlook of the Old City.

We got out and Sarah told us a little bit about the Temple and the Dome of the Rock, as well as general history of the large cemetery in front of us and the city of Jerusalem. We took a group picture before having a snack of watermelon and boarding the bus again for Mount Hertzl. We saw his and various other tombs there, then walked a few minutes down the hill to Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum. Here we spent two hours, which wasn't nearly enough to finish but still was emotionally draining. Since the relatively recent renovations of the museum, the structure echoes the content: you enter a relatively wide hall above ground, and can see the end of the museum in the distance. But to get there, the central hall narrows and dips underground, and the exhibit crisscrosses this central hall, shuttling you along and forcing you to pass all the material. As the "years" pass, the path is more constricted, until the end, when the central hall becomes wide again and glass doors lead onto a balcony overlooking a huge valley outside Jerusalem. As I emerged, tears in my eyes, the glowing orange ball of the sun hung low above the trees ringing the valley in the distance, silhouetting a view of modern Israel, the embodiment of hope for the Jewish people.

The day had an interesting symmetry to it: sunrise at Masada, sunset at Yad Vashem. In 20 hours we had covered so much ground, and I was drained completely, physically and emotionally. On the bus I expected to pass out immediately, but sleep eluded me all the way back to Rehovot. When we arrived around 9:30, I found some dinner, and then I crashed completely.

I took so many pictures that I'm going to post them grouped by location or subject matter over the next few days. So today you get pictures from the start of the trip and Masada!

A seemingly normal picture of people on the bus

just before our departure. But wait for it...

...look at Ari's face!

And now, Masada:

"A Disaster Created by Human Beings"

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726186987&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The title of this post is how XiaoMeng phrased it. I think that sums it up pretty well.

Day 21 - Adventures with shopkeepers

I slept until about 11 am on Saturday, despite a brief awakening at around 8:30 when Ben called me to say hi :). Once I woke up and showered, Debby pulled out some rustic bread, jams, and jaffa oranges, and made coffee. She sliced the oranges and said, "Here. Try this orange juice." They were delicious. We chatted a bit more until her daughter, who was visiting a friend in the same building, called us. We met her at her car, which she had parked in her mother's space (since Debby doesn't have a car), and drove to the restaurant.

The place started out as a coffee shop , and still had that sort of look, but smelled wonderful and had a really exciting menu which made ordering difficult. We got a salad as an appetizer, and I ordered game-hen "meatballs" in a tomato, ginger, and coriander sauce over mashed potatoes and shaved celery stalks. It was delicious! I was tempted by about 17 other things on the menu, but was happy with my choice. Debby's daughter was delightful, and we had a great chat. After lunch, they dropped me off about two blocks from the Old City. I wanted to wander a bit and buy some gifts, so in I went.

The streets were mostly empty, except a few children playing between services, until I reached the shook, where there were some tourists. I think this was a good day to shop, though, because while there were a few other people around, the proprietors of the stalls were relatively desperate for business, and I think I didn't go two steps without an individual salutation to see a specific good in a shop. Eventually, at a stall where the goods were particularly colorful, I let myself be guided in. He got me a chair, offered me some coffee, and began showing me everything he had, asking me what I wanted, how many, etc. At first I said one small one, then went up to one small and one big one. He then said he'd give me the same price for two large ones, which he said was the original asking price of the small one. I whittled that price down by a third or so, then decided to only get one and practically forced him to give it to me for less than half the price he was offering for two. I felt good about that.

At another shop the man behind the counter was young and very polite. He showed me just about every piece of jewelry he had, patiently, and gave me a bottle of cold orange juice to sip as I was served. I ended up buying something other than jewelry, but he gave me his card and told me to return any time I was in the city.

After a few hours, I grabbed a popsicle and sat for a while, then exited the gates and began walking back towards Ben Yehuda Street, past which was the central bus station. I sat to rest once I got to Ben Yehuda Street, and planned to grab some food and wait for it to open once it got dark, but a man around 40 years old sat down and started talking to me. He asked me all sorts of questions, making me relatively uncomfortable. I excused myself from this interaction and started walking back in the direction of the Old City, at which point I called Ben. As we chatted, Jodi, an Australian student who lives in my dorm, walked by and invited me to join her.

We walked back to the Old City to meet Nina and Dave, then turned around and walked back in search of dinner. Night was falling and stores and restaurants were beginning to open up again. As we walked through a side street of bars and restaurants, Dave saw a stand selling hookas and began a discussion with the seller. Jodi moved on to the next table, which contained jewelry, and I followed soon. Both of us rejoined Dave and Nina in a couple of minutes, though, at which point the oddest part of my day ensued.

I watched as the jewelry seller talked to the other people at the table, who were pointing at Jodi and me. He yelled over, "Did you look at the rings? Did you take a ring?" Jodi said no, as did I. He came over and brought me to the table, showing me an empty hole in the ring display case, and asked me again, loudly, if I had taken a ring. He then reached into my skirt pocket and removed a ring! This is when the real yelling began, about how I needed to pay double (200 shekels) or he'd call the police. I wanted to shout back that I didn't take his stupid ring and that he could try calling the police, but what I did was beg him to stop and tell him I didn't have enough cash on me to pay him. Jodi came over when she heard this hullaballo, and I reassured him before the two of us returned to the hookah table.

Dave was settling on a hookah and price, and the seller was allowing him to test a comparable model, so we had a few more minutes to kill before the purchase would be complete. Of course, during this time, the jewelry seller came over a few times to yell about me stealing his ring. The hookah dude asked me if I was ok, and told me the jewelry guy was sort of crazy. This made me feel a little bit better, as I was quite shaken. I felt not only scared but guilty, and as we left, Nina reassured me and commented that I had had quite a sketchy afternoon.

On the advice of Jodi's friend who lives in Jerusalem, we decided to eat at a cafe which doubled as a bookstore, which was hidden up some stairs at the end of a small alleyway nearby. The three of them all ordered shakshouka, a sort of Israeli breakfast dish consisting of tomato and eggs and sometimes a vegetable, like eggplant. I had never had it, but tried all of theirs as I ate my eggplant/egg/feta cheese puff pastry and salad. Then Nina and I split a brownie with some ice cream on top (her idea, not mine, but I like the way she thinks) before heading out.

We walked down Ben Yehudah Street, now buzzing with activity, and were forced to weave our way around bands of street performers, tourist groups, and random sculptures. Jodi left us to go see her friend, and we relocated Yaffo Street and eventually made it to the central bus station. The buses going straight to Rehovot had already left, so we took one which went through Ramla and then Rehovot before reaching its final destination. In line we ran into Tess, who had stayed the weekend in Jerusalem with some friends she had met as exchange students at Brown, her undergrad.

When the bus came, Tess got swallowed by the mob because she had to put her large bag underneath the bus, so it was a lucky thing when she got on the bus (and a long, tense wait until that finally happened). I had saved her a seat, though, which she eventually worked her way back to, and we chatted for about half the ride until my parents called. Toward the end of the ride I said goodbye to them, though. I went to the front of the bus to ask the driver to stop at the Weizmann Institute for the four of us. He did, and he waited for Tess to grab her large bag, both of which were lucky.

We got in to the building and parted ways. Ari and Oren's door was open, so I sat and chatted with them about their weekends a bit before going to bed. The following would be in Ari's blog, if he had one:

"So my brother was visiting for the weekend, and we were driving with our uncle. He's kind of old, and he's very Israeli in his driving. We're on the highway, and we miss the exit. No, we don't back up. He TURNS AROUND and starts driving, against traffic, on the highway. Luckily the oncoming traffic slowed down a bit. We then went up the ramp where traffic would come onto the highway from the exit we're trying to get to. It was really lucky that no one was coming in the opposite direction. I was in shock. I didn't realize fully what had happened until later."

Keep in mind that Ari was the one who was very near sick due to our dear friend Nick's driving on the way to and from our hike in the north. I can only imagine his facial expression during all of this.

Anyway, more photographs! Enjoy Jerusalem's architecture.

The building on the right houses Debby's apartment

You know you're nearby when...

View from just outside the walls

A deserted alleyway

Very old street signs

Day 20 - My great aunt-in-law, or something

Today I slept late.  Really.  Until 11!  When I woke up no one was around really except people with individual plans, so I called Deborah Magen, my sole relative in Israel.  She and I aren't really related, of course.  Her oldest sister married my great uncle, so here we are.  I left a message on her machine and then went to the drug store for some soap.  On my way back she called me back!  I had said I was thinking of coming into Jerusalem, and she asked me if my plans had solidified.  I told her that if they were to, I'd need a place to sleep.  She said, "Of course!  So are you coming or not?"  So I said yes.

I went home and packed a small bag, then walked to the mall/main bus terminal and caught the next bus to Jerusalem, which left at 3:30 pm.  When I got in, I walked straight to the shook and bought some baked treats as a thank you, some more dried fruit, some grapes because they looked so wonderful and I was thirsty and craving sugar, and some rolls.  Things were beginning to close for shabbat so it was the craziest I have ever seen the place and the vendors were yelling about their end-of-the-day discounts from every direction.  I am lucky to have emerged in tact.

I walked a bit further to see if any other shops were open, but no such luck, so I turned around and headed back.  According to my instructions, I was to take the #5 city bus to the last stop on Moshe Kol street, which is just past Mara street, where Debby's apartment is located.  I was nervous that I was waiting for the one going the wrong direction, a fear assuaged when I discovered it only went in one direction.  My next worry, that the last bus of that number had already been by, took a few more minutes to quell, but at least I was sitting down in partial shade as I worried.  Rehovot is hot, and humid, and while Jerusalem isn't the latter, it has improved upon the former.  The dry heat was astounding.  I finished the water I had brought and broke into the grapes, and I hadn't even walked that much.

In a little while the bus came and I got on, discovering as I did so that the driver spoke absolutely no english, which was interesting because I had no idea where I was going and was hoping for some help.  So we drove, and eventually got onto Moshe Kol street, which was a good sign.  Debby had warned me to get off before going down the big hill, which of course I failed to do because apparently I pushed the "I want to get off" button too late.  Rather than calling Debby to "come fetch me," as she put it, I trekked back up to the sign I had seen for Mara street, then called her.  She emerged from a building about 10 meters away!

We hugged and she congratulated me on the feat of finding my way to her door, which, as I pointed out, wasn't so much my doing as her direction.  We went inside and she gave me the grand tour, then we sat and talked until we were both hungry, while she meanwhile heated some things up that she had cooked earlier.  She apologized for the culinary "adventure" upon which we were about to embark, which turned out to be delicious: chicken stuffed with a mix of sauteed mushrooms, peas cooked with mint, salad, corn on the cob, and pasta with more mushrooms on top.  It was really good, and not at all what I had expected when she told me that since I hadn't given her much notice we'd be having an odd mixture of dishes.

Afterwards we had tea and the baked thingies which I had brought, and chatted more.  She was hilarious!  She talked my ear off, and would get onto these ridiculous tangents which I struggled but was usually able to reconnect to the main conversational thread.  Example:

Weather in D.C./Maryland

Weather in Jerusalem

Her daughter in Jerusalem

Her grandchild

Bob the Builder

Olivia

The possibility of eating lunch on Saturday at a place which serves bacon hamburgers

So it was a great night.  After a bit of news on TV, Debby went to bed, I watched some of the Turkey/Croatia game, then an episode of Crossing Jordan before going to bed myself.

And now, what you've all been waiting for...more pictures!  *applause*

Dried fruit at the market

Since it was close to closing time for shabbat, 

vendors were cleaning up their stalls

Spices in colorful plastic bags

Olives (assortment)

Day 13 - Feeling very touristy

Stephen and I stayed up rather late last night planning our trip, but it was very worth it. We got up early and met in the kitchen for breakfast at 8:15, then headed out. We stopped at an atm on the way to the mall, which also happens to be the central bus terminal in Rehovot. We caught the 435 bus to Jerusalem.

An hour later we emerged in Jerusalem's central bus terminal. How exciting! We found a way out of that place, which also happened to be a mall, to find ourselves on Yaffo/Jaffa street, which happened to be what we were looking for. Stephen and I each confirmed that we were going the correct direction in different ways. He looked at the numbers, which he knew should be decreasing, whereas I looked at the sun. Oh man.

So we walked. Soon we found ourselves at the Machanei Yehudah, a shook (market) that is relatively famous. We of course went in! There were fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and all sorts of clothing and kitchen shops and stalls. I bought two buns, for a shekel each (roughly 33 cents), then Stephen and I both bought some dried fruit. He got dried kiwis, which are his favorite fruit and which turned out to be delicious. I got apricots and golden raisins. After some more wandering we found a kitchen store and each bought a set of silverware, because the stuff we share at the Clore kitchen is sort of gross, to be honest.

After a few turns we ended up back on Yaffo, so we continued. I found a camera store which sold a small device to connect my lens cap to my lens, which was very useful, and we browsed in a few other shops which sold everything from Judaica to scarves to housewares. After a bit more walking, we found another familiar spot: Ben Yehuda Street. This is a very touristy street off Yaffo, to which both of us had been on birthright but which we detoured down anyways. We were half expecting to run into a few birthright groups, but sadly did not.

Back on Yaffo, we soon unexpectedly reached the Jaffa gate. For those of you who have never been, Jerusalem is a relatively sprawling city, but the religious or most historic district, known (creatively) as the Old City, is located within the smaller, walled portion, access to which is restricted to several gates, of which Jaffa is one. The Old City is made up of various areas: the Jewish, Arab, Christian, and Armenian Quarters. The Jaffa gate lets you in by the Armenian Quarter, but as we walked further, into a market, we eventually reached the Cardo (literally, the "heart") which led to the Jewish Quarter. Stephen then got a call from someone he had facebooked late last night; an Israeli who lives in Jerusalem and who will be starting at MIT in the fall.

We walked back out of the Old City to meet him, and then went to lunch at a very yummy Italian place. I had goat cheese and eggplant ravioli, which were delicious. We then walked around in the vicinity of Yaffo street some more before heading back to Evgeny's car. He drove us back to the bus station, where we got some cold drinks and then waited for the bus. This last bit turned out to be much less boring than we might have hoped. After trying to hold our own in a sweaty, small mob to get on our bus, we were informed as we were about to board that it was full. We thought it was the last one back to Rehovot, which would have been a crisis as Stephen had planned to be back for shabbat services. Luckily another bus pulled up. Unfortunately since we had finally gotten to the front of the mob, we were relegated to the back of this new mob. But after a few minutes we got on, and both of us promptly fell asleep until we reached Rehovot.

We were both feeling really gross and still groggy as we trekked back to campus, but on the way Ben called (!) and we chatted briefly. After eating dinner and showering, I felt much better. Joel and I made a 2-block excursion in the hopes of renting a movie from the machine-thingies, but upon discovering a) the machines were entirely in hebrew and b) there was nothing we really wanted to see, we returned to the dorms and proceeded to watch the end of Lost in Translation and the entire Vanilla Sky on TV for free (and with no risk of accidentally renting porn, which our other movie-watching method wasn't free of). Now bed. Tomorrow promises to be exciting!

Pictures of today...first, Machanei Yehuda...

...where there were baked goods and other delights.

Stephen and I don't understand the Israeli fascination with Crocs,

but they must be popular for Naot to imitate them...

Me in front of a Medieval map/work of art depicting

"the world" on a wall at the former cite of Jerusalem's municipal center

Outside a coffee/spice shop along Yaffo St.

In the Old City...

...you can buy not only scarves but old brass items!

And Stephen, once again confused

(but this time with regards to organic chemistry graffiti)